My husband threw out his back a few days back, and today I took him to my favorite body worker. His name is Joe. Joe is either a magician or a technician, or both. The artistry with which he eases & relieves underlying patterns in the body is amazing. All his amassed knowledge and skills truly enable him to execute what he does with such precision that it makes it look like wizardry to the untrained eye. He found the route causes to my husbands troubles, including ones that were laid years ago, helped them release, and supported his body to find a new healthy internal balance of structure, stability, movement & flexibility.
Two days previously I took my husband to a massage therapist. It was nice, and I am sure helpful in keeping things in his back from locking down (until we could get an appointment with Joe), but it is not the same as what he did today. I’m not knocking massage therapy here, but it is just different. Plain & simple. I think it is massively beneficial to help relieve stress, tension and generally receive touch to support a sense of well being. (And kudos to all the other well documented benefits of massage too.) But there is also a time & place to undo & redo the underlying patterns that culminate in the symptoms you’re currently experiencing. And I think that this time & place needs to be acknowledged more in the health & wellness community. There is certainly a time & place to just get a massage too, but I think people would benefit greatly to becoming accustomed to hearing about “root work” (as I will now call all forms of work that aim at re-solving the underlying patterns — physical, emotions, energetic, mental…) and being able to decipher when & where it is time for one and when it is time for the other.
(And surely root work isn’t unknown. Chiropractic & many other forms of healing work do this. It just needs to be in the health & wellness conversation more than it is.)
My curiosity goes to why — why is massage (and things roughly equivalent to it) so much more accepted in our culture than other forms of root work? It is a million times more common to find a massage therapist than it is to, say, find someone like Joe. (Ok, so maybe not a million literally. But you know what I mean.) Why is this? Why is it that it is so much more common, accepted & mainstream for you to have work done that helps you do amorphous things like “feel good,” “relieve stress,” and “boost immunity”? Why is it so much less common for you to seek out support on going to the root of the problem and fix it where it begins?
Why are you feeling bad in the first place? Why do you allow such stress in your life? Why is your immunity compromised? And for that matter, why haven’t all your hoped & dreams become realities yet? There are always reasons we unconsciously keep ourselves from having what we want on the outside. Always.
I’m curious about this because I do root work. I don’t do body work, but I work in the realms of the emotions, memories, hopes-dreams-n-desires, and our identity & belief structure (who we take ourselves to be in the first place). I (very roughly) liken coaching to massage — both uber helpful in their own way, but not getting at the root of what is going on. Someone can help you get clear on your goals or make a plan of action for moving forward. (Or even ride your ass to get that action plan done!) But really, why is that particular dream harder to achieve than all the others? Why is your life is such good shape in all but a few areas? What’s going on there? Wouldn’t you rather undo & redo those underlying patterns so it is easier to do ( & be, & have, & enjoy…) all these things on into the future (and NOT have to hire someone to help you with an action plan each and every time!). I know I would.
I also know I am grateful to Joe for helping my husband re-solve the underlying support structure issues with his back so I won’t have to take him to a massage therapist every time he gets hurt. He will just get hurt less now!